Hotel Marion Ostende

... for the day.Ghent is a nice place with an amazing central area full of churches and imposing buildings.Unfortunately the entire area was under construction so it didn't have the same effect.<br>Brussels was larger than the other cities, and we picked up a similar local map to visit thehidden gems on offer.<br>(Whitney)<br>Bruges is a really lovely city, enclosed by a river that runs around and through it which results in ...

... I'm wrong. Who knows? (Probably historians, or doctors shh.) <br><br>That's it, I got on a train and headed back to Amsterdam for the night. It was a whirlwind trip through Belgium but so has the rest of this trip so why would this be any different. <br><br>Oh I did stop in Antwerp and had a Belgian waffle. I had three bites and threw it away it was so sweet. But I'm sure everyone else would love it. <br><br>Update soon!<br><br>Dina

... sister Bec! We spent the rest of the day with them, wandering around, saw the wizzing girl, ate choc strawberries (sooooo yum), had hot chocolates, visited HEAPS of chocolate shops, and then went back to their hotel room for a bit before heading out for dinner. Apparently they are famous for their mussels, so Jac, Bec and I shared a big bucket of them and then had some pasta. Turns out I had a BAAAD mussel, or my stomach just really doesn&#8217;t like them, because I ...

... and an outdoor beer garden. We had nice huge meals that we struggled to finish and we enjoyed a good Aussie shiraz with it.<br><br>Day 2 &#8211; Wednesday 23rd September &#8211; We awoke to our alarms so that we would make the 8:30 breakfast, which was my only complaint about this place. The breakfast was great but the 8:30am set time was a bit annoying, but at least you were up early to start the day this way.<br><br>Our first stop was the tourist office, we had decided to ...

... and Child by Leonardo Da Vinci is housed &#8211; the &#8220;pointy church&#8221; from the movie. I may get lost again. In this town, that&#8217;s not so bad.<br><br>Off the wall observations: It seems that the Italians make the American look like seasoned, sophisticated tourists. They&#8217;re everywhere, they&#8217;re loud, and you definitely don&#8217;t want them in line in front of you. They&#8217;ll take a half hour arguing with ...

... more (what else would we do?) we sat down at Bocca, an Italian restaurant that serves pasta in takeout Chinese container lookalikes. I admit, I was skeptical at first, but it was some of the best 5 euros I have ever spent &#8211; the homemade sauce was absolutely delicious! We liked it so much that we are planning to write to Europe on a Budget and recommend it. Seriously, it was that good. <br><br>To cap off our evening in Bruges, we went and got ...

... for beer and the corresponding glasses...because every beer in Belgium has a specific glass that you are supposed to drink it from. We spent as much time as we could in Bruges before we had to head back to Brussels to catch our plane and we still needed more time in Brussels to meet up with a friend from Clemson. I was sad to leave Bruges. It was definitely an amazing place to visit. <br>

... We were mobbed. So, we had to retreat back to our B&amp;B, which was very nice, take a nap, and wait for the evening to provide some sort of sanctuary from all the locals coming in for the day. As evening arrived, peace filled the city, and the buildings, which were lit up beautifully, provided a great backdrop for a 'charming' evening of strolling through the ...

... through Belgium, I noticed that all of the houses here are made of brick. The reason for this (I found out on the tour today -- more about that later) is that Belgium is covered with clay (something like 18 feet deep), so bricks are very cheap to make, whereas wood is scarce on account of it's such a small, dense country and most of the trees were used up some time ago. It gives everything a very different look than I'm used to. One thing I ...

... who make tablecloths, napkins, doilies (ugh - but...they are quite intricate). They make delicious waffles and pancakes and cover them with toppings...YUM. There are museums and restaurants...and such incredibly beautiful architecture and gardens. It might be the most romantic place I've ever seen. Not the place for a week of partying...unless drinking really good beer in an ...